Israel's Gaza invasion - Day 407

Gaza’s civil defence has said Israeli air strikes killed at least 20 people, including four women and three children, across the war-torn Palestinian territory, Al Jazeera reports.

“The deadliest strike killed 10 people in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza,” said civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal.

At least one woman was killed and 10 were wounded in another strike on a house in the same camp, he added.

Five other people were killed and 11 wounded by a missile launched by an Israeli drone in the morning in the southern city of Rafah, Bassal said.

Gaza Health Ministry’s Director-General Munir al-Bursh has given Al Jazeera an update on the latest developments:

• Israeli forces deliberately bomb civilians late at night so that no one could save them, al-Bursh said.
• Yesterday, Israelis prevented the entry of a UN humanitarian convoy carrying medicines to Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.
• Almost 30 per cent of the victims of the Beit Lahiya massacre today are children.
• There are between 20 and 30 people under the rubble in Beit Lahiya who cannot be reached.
• More than 12,000 wounded people are in urgent need of treatment abroad, but Israeli forces are preventing them from travelling.
• They deliberately target doctors, even while they are in their homes, to prevent them from providing their services.

Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee has ordered residents residing in Beirut’s southern suburb area, specifically in certain buildings in Haret Hreik, to evacuate, adding without evidence that the area hosts “Hezbollah facilities and interests”, Al Jazeera reports.

These are just the latest in a series of evacuation orders issued by the Israeli army on areas of southern Beirut this morning. Strikes typically follow the issuance of these orders.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Gaza rescue organisation, says it cannot reach the site of an attack on Beit Lahiya, north Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.

“The department received appeals from residents of a house bombed by the Israeli occupation in Beit Lahiya, but we cannot move to rescue them,” he said.

Two bombs hit a five-storey residential tower in the northern Gaza city, killing “tens” of people, according to medics.

The Palestinian media report that Israeli forces are in the process of demolishing tens of residential buildings in the Jabalia refugee camp, Al Jazeera reports.

Reports of mass demolition of buildings have been coming throughout Israel’s siege of northern Gaza, continuing for more than a month.

Israel’s attacks on Gaza today included an assault on the UN-run Abu Assi school in the Shati refugee camp in the north, Al Jazeera Hind Khoudary reports.

“Medical sources say at least 10 Palestinians were killed and 20 others injured. Among them were several women and children,” Khoudary said, adding that the school was sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians.

“Most of them had fled areas in the north, including Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoon and Jabalia,” she added.

Israeli police said they have arrested three people after two flares were fired at the Israeli prime minister’s private residence in the northern town of Caesarea, The Times of Israel reports.

There were no additional details.

Earlier, the Israeli police said the flares fell in the garden and that Netanyahu and his wife were not at home at the time.

They described the incident as “a dangerous escalation”.

Al Jazeera Arabic reports that an Israeli bombing has killed five Palestinians in the eastern neighbourhoods of the city in the south of the Gaza Strip.

It’s been more than six months since Israeli ground forces invaded Rafah, promising a “limited” operation against Hamas fighters in the city where more than 1 million Palestinians had been sheltering.

The Israeli President’s Office said Isaac Herzog is cancelling his planned trip to the UN’s climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, citing “security considerations”, according to the Times of Israel, Al Jazeera reports,.

The Israeli daily did not elaborate but said that several Israeli ministers and officials would still be attending the meeting.

It added that “Israel’s delegation is taking place under tight security, given the country’s proximity to Iran, though Azerbaijan itself is seen as an ally of Israel.”

Al Jazeera Arabic reports that the death toll from an Israeli attack on the Bureij refugee camp has risen to 10 people.

Photos published by the Anadolu news agency showed several people with head injuries and covered in dust being taken to hospital after the attack. The wounded included children.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reports that the seven victims were all from the same family.

They were killed in an Israeli attack in the village of Arab Salim, in the Nabatieh governorate of southern Lebanon, the agency reported.

The Israeli military issued a statement saying its forces carried out a fourth wave of attacks on Beirut’s Dahiye on Saturday evening and that in the last week alone, it has bombed 50 “targets” in the neighbourhood, Al Jazeera reports.

The statement came as Israeli forces continued to pound cities and towns across southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli air raids and shelling in the town of Khiam in the Nabatieh governorate as well as bombings in Blat in South Lebanon governorate.

Earlier, NNA reported Israeli attacks on the southern city of Tyre, and on several towns and villages in Nabatieh, including Deir Antar, Henin, Tebnine, Habbush and Deir al-Zahrani.

Yemen’s Houthi forces attacked “a vital target” in Israel’s Red Sea port of Eilat with a number of drones, the group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a televised speech, Reuters reports.

A ceasefire proposal to halt fighting in Lebanon is still being reviewed after a copy was handed over earlier this week by the US ambassador to Lebanon to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who has been negotiating on behalf of Hezbollah, Al Jazeera reports.

An unnamed Lebanese official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that Berri is expected to give Lebanon’s response on Monday.

Berri told the pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat daily newspaper the draft does not include any demand that allows Israel to act militarily in Lebanon if the deal is violated. “We will not accept any infringement of our sovereignty,” Berri was quoted as saying.

One of the items mentioned in the draft that Lebanon does not accept is a proposal to form a committee to supervise the agreement that includes members from Western countries. “The atmosphere is positive but all relies on how things will end,” said Berri.

Israeli army’s chief of staff Herzi Halevi said that the military will continue to strike Lebanon until displaced Israelis from the north can return, Al Jazeera reports.

“Hezbollah has paid a high price, its chain of command has collapsed, many of its operatives have been killed, and extensive infrastructure dismantled,” Halevi said in a statement released by the Israeli army.

“This organisation will continue to shoot, we will continue to fight, to implement plans, go further, conduct deep strikes, and hit Hezbollah very hard.

“We will stop when we know that we are bringing the residents [of northern Israel back] safely.”

The Palestinian Civil Defence agency says its teams retrieved the bodies of four people after an Israeli air raid targeted central Gaza City, Al Jazeera reports.

Several Palestinians were injured following an attack on a house belonging to the Ayoub family at al-Shaabiyah Junction in the city, it said.

An Italian air force plane took off carrying more than 15 tonnes of humanitarian aid for the desperate people of Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.

The aid on board the aircraft, which departed from the central Italian city of Pisa, had been collected by charity group Confederazione Nazionale delle Misericordie d’Italia, a Defence Ministry statement said.

“Italy is doing and will continue to do everything possible to alleviate the suffering of the civilian population in Gaza,” said Defence Minister Guido Crosetto.

An Israeli strike killed 10 Palestinians and wounded at least 20 others at Abu Assi school, which currently being used to house displaced families in western Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp, medics told Reuters.

Israel has launched a wave of air strikes in Beirut and south Lebanon today, a day after Lebanese government officials said they were studying a US truce proposal, AFP reports.

An Israeli strike on neighbouring Syria earlier this week allegedly killed two leaders from Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian group which has fought alongside Hamas militants in Gaza, a source told AFP.

The northern Gaza Strip has been under siege for more than 40 days, Hind Khoudary of Al Jazeera reports.

“Israeli soldiers have surrounded and imposed a strict blockade on Palestinians in Beit Lahiya, Jabalia and Beit Hanoon, where Palestinians are unable to evacuate their besieged homes,” the reporter said.

The reporter said they received many appeals from people in Beit Lahiya who say they’re stuck and need rescuing. They have no food, water or medical aid, she added.

“Other than air strikes and continuing artillery shelling, the military has extensively deployed quadcopters that Israeli forces use to fire live ammunition at Palestinians and kill them in different areas across the Gaza Strip,” she said.

The Israeli military has announced it has begun a wave of airstrikes on the coastal city of Tyre in Lebanon, Al Jazeera reports.

The strikes came after the army issued evacuation orders for at least 14 buildings earlier today.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a Geneva-based human rights organisation, says it has documented dozens of premeditated murders and field executions in northern Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.

As Israeli forces continue to lay siege to the northern part of the enclave for 43 days now, the monitor said it found that among the many crimes committed by Israeli forces, including mass displacement and targeting shelters, it has documented cases of direct killing and extrajudicial executions “without any justification”.

Euro-Med urged the UN and the international community to intervene and stop the “genocide” in Gaza and the siege in the north.

Read more here.

Irish police pushed back pro-Palestine students and academics who held a protest on the campus of Queen’s University in Belfast, denouncing the visit of former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Al Jazeera reports.

Palestine supporters protested Clinton’s visit, accusing her of supporting the Israeli military offensives in Gaza and Lebanon. The protest, which featured Palestinian flags and people drenched in fake blood, was met with police force.

Police arrested several protesters leading dozens to demonstrate in Belfast for their release. The former US secretary of state’s visit to Belfast was to participate in the Global Innovation Summit.

The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (Unifil) has said an artillery shell hit its headquarters in the western sector of southern Lebanon but did not explode, Anadolu reports.

In a statement, Unifil said the incident happened in the afternoon, where “a 155mm live artillery shell hit the UNIFIL West Sector headquarters in Shama”.

“The shell did not detonate and Italian bomb disposal experts swiftly secured the area, removed the ordnance, and conducted a controlled detonation,” Unifil also said.

It, however, didn’t blame any group for the incident, but strongly reminded “all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and properties.”